Media

With global unemployment figures reaching the highest level on record – 212 million people in 2009 – the state of job growth worldwide has been covered extensively in the international media. The news, interviews and stories featured here provide insights into the Jobs Pact policies that have been implemented to address this multi-faceted crisis and identify further actions that could generate decent jobs.

In his address to the Governing Body, Prof Ian Goldin, Director of Oxford Martin School made a remarkable analysis of the dynamics of globalization and offered insights and perspectives into how policy actions on equity, migration, innovation and growth will shape our lives and work in the twenty-first century.

The Commission for Social Development adopted resolution E/CN.5/2012/L.7, on the priority theme “Poverty Eradication” addressing global concerns over the continuing high levels of unemployment and underemployment, particularly among young people, and recognizing that decent work remains one of the best routes out of poverty.

In the plenary hall of the 2012 International Labour Conference in Geneva, a panel of high level experts from South Africa, China, Chile, Belgium, Russia and Australia shared their experiences, the challenges and some lessons learned since the Global Economic Crisis began.

With an official unemployment rate of 25 per cent, the South African government knows that employment creation cannot be left to the private sector alone. There is a huge gap between the jobs that are needed and the jobs that the market can generate. The State has the responsibility to fill that gap. Today South Africa has become a prime example of a country where public employment programmes (PEPs) and its Community Work Programme (CWP) are playing a key role in providing a minimum level of employment where markets are failing to do so. The CWP, although not universal in coverage, is being designed to test an employment guarantee.

Interview with Alice Ouedraogo, Deputy Director of the ILO's Policy Integration Department about the International Labour Organization's efforts to help achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), in particular the first MDG on eradicating extreme poverty and hunger.